Issue VI, Volume X : July 2019

Daniel Wolff - Poetry

Daniel Wolff has published poetry in The Paris Review, Partisan Review, and Three Penny Review, among others. His latest non-fiction book is How Lincoln Learned to Read: 12 Great Americans and the Educations That Made Them.
A Grammy nominee, he’s currently working with director Jonathan Demme on a documentary about citizens returning to New Orleans. These poems are from a manuscript, “The Names of Birds.”

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Herring Gull

At the very top story of night,a white gull wails, wheeling.

How would I know ifit were telling the truth? I'm not.

Above the crust of light at the rim of the sky,a few stars survive the glow of earth.

It's a common thing, a scavenger.It cries at the edge of what works.

Red-Winged Blackbird

The red-winged blackbird announces springby announcing itself: a series of clicks,a rising song, a flash of red.

Winter is dead.No. That's wrong. Just one of the tricksthat order can bring.